PC World loves/hates ten things about Apple; I hate one thing about IDG
Looks like the article over which Harry McCracken drew the line in the sand has been released in PC World. Apparently it was split into two: “Ten things we love about Apple” and “Ten things we hate about Apple” (accompanied by a dodgy note from PCWorld.com editor, Ramon McLeod). It wasn’t clear from the original Epicenter article that this was intended to be two articles from the get-go, and I’m not even going to bother discussing the articles themselves. But I don’t think it’s at all unfair of PC World to have an op/ed about what they dislike in Cupertino, and I can tell you this: the one thing I hate about IDG is how they handled this thing. It was an ugly situation that was handled poorly, and besides losing a lot of face they also lost one very dedicated, talented editor who was only concerned with preserving his publication’s credibility. (For more on that topic, see Pete as featured in the New Yorker piece about Mossberg.) I’m remain as grateful as ever that I’m not working for anyone that expects my editorial to be beheld to advertisers.
I'm an editor and technology critic in the midst of founding a new web startup: 
Ryan:
I totally agree with your post about PC World–this is what I wrote on http://www.mondaymorningmediaquarterback.com (a blog that looks at the media) about it.
Harry McCracken, editor in chief of PC World, resigned last week after the magazine’s chief exec (or publisher) killed a story about Apple Computer. The story, perhaps not wisely for McCracken’s tenure, was called “Ten Things We Hate About Apple.”
That kind of story is only OK with the publisher (read ‘chief ad salesman’) if all “ten things we hate” are on the order of “1. Apple is so darned innovative that’s it’s hard to keep up with all their insanely great products.”
With more and more readers migrating to the Web, and thus not actually buying magazines, advertising, both print and web, becomes increasingly important. Indeed, the PC World publisher, Colin Crawford, claims 35% of IDG’s income comes from digital sources. So what’s been called the ‘Chinese wall’ between the editorial and advertising sides is becoming increasingly porous. As McCracken seems to have discovered, editorial independence is falling by the wayside, and the ‘new Golden Rule’ is in place: “He who has the gold, makes the rules.”